Moving to the Ground of the Giants: Actress Maggie Gyllenhaal’s first film
“The Dark Daughter” which is based on a novel by the Italian writer Elena Prenta is the first film by the American-Jewish actress, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and she manages to prove to all of us that she is not only an actress, but also a wonderful and smart director.
There is no doubt that actress Maggie Gyllenhaal has taken on no small challenge for directing her first feature film. To adapt a novel by the writer Elena Perante (who wrote the exemplary book series “My Genius Girlfriend”) into a full-length film is undoubtedly a pretense and daring for a director at the beginning of her career. But Gyllenhaal manages to do it perfectly, without flaws.
Gyllenhaal manages to establish herself as one of the most intriguing and cohesive directors in the swamp, mainly due to the fact that she has managed to formulate a cinematic language unique to her from the very first scene of the film. It is no wonder that pretty soon she received a nomination for the Golden Globe Award in the directing category.
The plot follows Lada, a lecturer in literature who kisses at the age of fifty and arrives for a short vacation in Greece. Lada, who came to the place with the aim of reading and receiving peace and quiet, encounters a large and noisy family that manages to escape every bit of calm it has managed to mobilize. Although the same family is supposedly ruining the vacation to give birth, she begins to take an interest in a young girl, Nina.
Nina came to her little daughter, her husband and his family to vacation on the exact same beach. Observing her manages to flood Lada with memories of distant days when she was a young and ambitious student of literature, a mother of two daughters. The same observation, and the same floating memories, pretty quickly reveal to us that Chassis is actually carrying quite a few guilt feelings with her.
One day, Lada decides to take action (consciously or not) and steal Nina’s daughter’s little doll. From that moment on, as can already be described, things get more and more complicated. Lada is not a classic heroine, and in that sense, most of the time it is hard to identify with her. However, the plot manages to touch the heart, and sometimes even shed a tear.
Olivia Coleman presents again, a particularly impressive acting show, and she no doubt manages to stabilize herself as one of the most esteemed and important actresses of the period. In general, it seems that Gyllenhaal knew how to choose the actors and actresses in the best way.
This is a must-watch movie for anyone who has read and watched “My Genius Girlfriend,” but certainly not only. The duty actually exists for anyone who appreciates quality and good cinema. A small anecdote to conclude, Gyllenhaal surrounded herself with strong women even behind the scenes, in small and large roles alike, including artistic design, production, and more.
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